Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Just For Me January: Sis Boom Blog Tour

I know lots of people would agree that 2016 was rough and I didn't think so until something happened right before the holidays. So, in order to have something to look forward to and to celebrate my birthday (January 31st) I joined the Sis Boom - Just for Me January blog tour.

I chose the Rebecca Shift Dress, but what I had been craving for a long time was a sheath dress.

As I scoured the internet for inspiration I found this little gem styled so many different ways.

Photo Courtesy of Polyvore.com

Photo Courtesy of Polyvore.com

Photo Courtesy of Polyvore.com

I was in love!

This is a Dolce and Gabbana design that retails for $1500+. Whew.....that's a pretty penny. And what a great challenge. I wanted to do this soooo bad, but would I be skilled and/or lucky enough to get it right?

This story could be told one of two ways. It could involve a last minute trip to Lowe's that ends with some MDF board tied to the top of a car going 20 miles an hour so that it doesn't fall off for a backdrop or it could go like this:

Perfectionism is the killer of happiness. Now, let me tell you why:

Often times we put off things that might make us happy in favor of waiting for "the right time" or to lose that extra 10lbs or whatever your "I'll do it when..." scenario looks like.

But sometimes, doing those little things gives us just the boost we need to feel like we're winning.

I spent 85% of the time I had to make this dress wondering how I was going to make it. What always gets me is the ever present combination of meticulously completing a certain portion of my project (the part that I do according to the pattern) and the make-it-up-as-I-go portion (my favorite results part). With this dress I didn't want any exposed seams, mostly because my serger is out of commission right now, only to end up cutting my carefully constructed lining in order to take up the shoulders. When I tried the bubble hem I was sure that I had it down, only to sew my lining and outer fabric into a never ending loop of insanity. Did I mention that was the last thing that I had to do?

As I tried to figure out how to construct the dress so it would hide the last few pounds I gained I was also preparing for when it would be time to wear the dress. I bought pretty stockings and shoes not sure if I should wait until I had worked on my midsection or lost weight before I made the dress. I bought new makeup colors to experiment with and thought about how to style my hair wondering if It would be too plain with this grown up dress.

After all the thought and agonizing and trial and error when I put on my final product I couldn't help but feel awesome.

It worked!

And guess what? Those pretty stockings? Slim the belly that I hate. The impractically cute leopard shoes? Make my legs look amazing. Oh, and those custom Cinderella shoes I had my super talented friend make? Well, they finally got a worthy companion, unfortunately I could not get them in a shot to save my life.

I'd have to say that this is my most favorite thing that I have made myself and I wish I had a tutorial, but after giving up on "perfect" a lot of winging it went on. I will tell you what I did do:

I omitted the dip in the neckline,I made it fully lined instead of using facings. I joined the belt and skirt pieces on the front pattern piece and the bodice, belt and skirt on the back to reduce the number of seams and make the back the way I imagined it to be on the original. This also meant combining darts (which could have gone better). I slimmed the entire silhouette to make it more fitted and added ruching to the front skirt piece. Let me tell you ladies, ruching is your friend. She hides ALL the pastries: rolls, muffin tops, you name it. I did a semblance of a bubble hem. Remember that I had to cut my hems apart so I lost the longer slimmed bottom look, but that's ok! Sure, I still have so fit issues and the bottom isn't exactly right, but guess what? It still looks great and I'm happy and proud to have attempted it.

I plan to make many more Rebecca Shift Dresses both hacked and as is. If you'd like to sew yourself up something pretty, right now, not tomorrow or next week or after you lose the weight, I am giving away a copy of the original pattern. All you have to do to enter is comment on this post and tell me one thing that you love about yourself right now.

I love my eyes! I wouldn't have picked this pattern as it didn't seem like my style, but with the hacks you did it totally is. Now I want the pattern, to hack it into something similar to yours! It's just so stunning, great job!

What a creative way to use this pattern. I actually love my new found curves. Normally I'm a very defined inverted triangle. Somewhere I found my hourglass body shape. Not sure how it worked out, but I refuse to lose any weight because I sort of like this new shape.

I love that I have made a leap of faith to follow my dream...study to enter the health services field in order to give myself security in the future, whatever may come. As a mid-40's woman who has been a SAHM, dependent upon someone else for a long time I am so excited to be doing this for ME!